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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 7, 2016 13:56:27 GMT -5
On another forums I was astounded to learn that someone in the Edmonton area is not only successfully grafting pears onto saskatoons but pears and such onto cotoneaster. Those he says have not yet fruited although the pears on the saskatoon have. He says ( and offers a photo to prove it) that the pears are full size, but that the branches with them require support as they are thin as would be expected of a sort of shrub. It sounds a whole lot easier to do that than to try to track down special rootstock and so forth.
The next project that several on that forums are starting is grafting fruit trees on aronia. Apparently the grafts are taking, but the results otherwise are as yet unknown. This astonishes me, trying to do this would never have crossed my mind.
Anyone here doing this sort of thing?
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Post by khoomeizhi on Jun 7, 2016 16:20:37 GMT -5
doing some of it, yeah. a friend and business partner of mine has been experimenting quite a bit to see what's possible - though i bet cotoneaster would be a new one for him. so far pears and apples, a few types of hawthorns, and some crosses (shipova, etc) all seem relatively happy on aronia and serviceberries (don't know if ours here are technically saskatoons). i don't know if i'd agree that the grafted parts are full-sized though. aronia at least seems to be somewhat dwarfing, and serviceberry may too (we've done fewer of those).
edit - oh, i see what you're saying about size. that may be true.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 8, 2016 14:00:57 GMT -5
The branches or stems appear to be dwarfed but the fruit is full sized. That's on a Saskatoon though, which is pretty much a small tree, sort of, so I could see how that would work, but my aronia bushes ( admittedly very young) appear to be far too flimsy to hold up much, and I never knew that cotoneaster can grow to 10 feet tall, so learning a whole lot these days.
So then what about things like peaches and apricots? Hawthorn grows wild here so going to try starting some cuttings this year, the seed has not cooperated. I need a bunch of cherry seedlings moved and wondering if a sweet cherry might grow on a sour cherry rootstock. the tree is scattering volunteers like confetti. The plan is to make a hedgerow of them but don't really need that many cherries. Although - weird years like this one, when the tree bloomed earlier than the pollinators had got up to speed, extra trees would be welcome. So what can be grafted onto a sour cherry bush that grows about 7 feet high only?
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Post by mskrieger on Jun 9, 2016 10:34:45 GMT -5
As far as grafting sweet cherries onto sour, I'd say go for it! At least one of the standard cherry rootstocks, Mahaleb, is a totally different species than either sweet or sour cherries. It generally works well, although some sweet cherries aren't as long lived when grafted to it. I think the sour cherry 'bushes' (the Nanking series?) are already complex crosses between species, so who knows? Why not try, cherries are precocious and you'll know within a few years what's working.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jun 11, 2016 23:55:22 GMT -5
I have a mature evans cherry that is imo "meh" in flavour although it is very vigorous and dependable to bear. Aside from the one U of Sask cherry which is trying to pretend it's a poplar and sending suckers out everywhere trying to take over the garden, three more have showed up this year that I thought had been drowned and/or repeatedly mowed down, but like Rasputin have refused to die. Those must have quite a root system by now, 3 years in the ground and only a few inches tall. So now need to find a source of sweet cherry scions as we are well and truly well out of the normal range for sweet cherries and the Evans tree especially has some branches on the sheltered side which look like excellent possibilities for something to be grafted onto them.
Will have to look more into this, bought a cotoneaster a couple of days ago. Why am I only learning about all this stuff now instead of 20 years ago!!
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Post by Marches on Jul 8, 2016 4:01:00 GMT -5
On another forums I was astounded to learn that someone in the Edmonton area is not only successfully grafting pears onto saskatoons but pears and such onto cotoneaster. Those he says have not yet fruited although the pears on the saskatoon have. He says ( and offers a photo to prove it) that the pears are full size, but that the branches with them require support as they are thin as would be expected of a sort of shrub. It sounds a whole lot easier to do that than to try to track down special rootstock and so forth. The next project that several on that forums are starting is grafting fruit trees on aronia. Apparently the grafts are taking, but the results otherwise are as yet unknown. This astonishes me, trying to do this would never have crossed my mind. Anyone here doing this sort of thing? Pears are often grafted onto Hawthorn in England which occurs everywhere. |
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Post by MikeH on Jul 8, 2016 4:50:42 GMT -5
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Post by rangardener on Jul 8, 2016 19:25:38 GMT -5
Over years I have heard of examples from our area of similar “unusual” grafting (using aronia, cotoneaster, flowering quince, … even photinia, as rootstocks) for purposes such as “just for fun”, or for expediting the fruit bearing of those under exploration.
I am sort of exploring the other way around: putting something small onto taller plants. Mountain ash (Sorbus aucuparia) is a common volunteer tree here, easy to propagate, too, as I read. For years I had no luck in propagating/grafting Chinese hawthorn (Crataegus pinnatifida), but this year I tried grafting Chinese hawthorn onto mountain ash and found it very easy. (Of course, I will not know the long term compatibility until later.) By doing this I can avoid some deer problems since they just love to harass my Chinese hawthorn bush.
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jocundi
gopher
Tinkering with fruits and veggies in Eastern Boreal Forest on Canadian Shield.
Posts: 28 
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Post by jocundi on Jul 10, 2016 12:16:38 GMT -5
I have apple grafts on Aronia and Hawthorn that seem to be doing well. No fruit yet, but the graft on Hawthorn flowered.
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Post by prairiegarden on Jul 25, 2016 0:19:19 GMT -5
on aronia? I planted an aronia this year, it seems to be surviving but without a lot of enthusiasm, I'm hoping it's just concentrating on growing a great root system. Going to have to go the the scion swap next spring!
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